Gabriel Fernandez, an eight-year-old from Antelope Valley, Los Angeles, was allegedly murdered by his mother and her boyfriend for ‘acting gay,’ reports the LA Times.

Gabriel, who died in May 2013, was allegedly beaten, doused with pepper spray, forced to eat his own vomit and locked in a cabinet with a sock in his mouth to muffle his screams.

Gabriel’s mother, Pearl Fernandez, and her boyfriend, Isauro Aguirre, both of whom pleaded not guilty, are in jail awaiting trial on charges of capital murder and a special circumstance of torture.

Deputy District Attorney Jonathan Hatami said that Gabriel “was abused, beaten and tortured more severely than many prisoners of war” for eight months.

Two of the boy’s siblings confirmed that Gabriel was forced to eat cat feces, rotten spinach and vomit; that he slept in a locked cabinet and wasn't let out to go to the bathroom; and that Fernandez and Aguirre called him gay, punished him when he played with dolls and forced him to wear girls' clothes to school.

According to testimony, Pearl Fernandez once jabbed Gabriel in the mouth with a bat and knocked out several teeth.

One of Gabriel’s siblings said that on the day of the fatal beating, Fernandez began hitting her son because he didn't want to pick up his toys. She then dragged him into a bedroom, where Aguirre joined her, and the siblings heard screaming, banging and then silence.

James Kemp Ribe of the L.A. County coroner's office told the grand jury that Gabriel died as a result of blunt-force trauma and child neglect. He added, "I have never seen this many skin injuries on one child.”

Gabriel's mother called 911 on May 22nd, 2013. She told sheriff's deputies that Gabriel had fallen and hit his head on a dresser. Paramedics found Gabriel naked in a bedroom, not breathing, with a cracked skull, three broken ribs and BB pellets embedded in his lung and groin. He died two days later.

The incident has prompted calls for reforms to the Los Angeles County foster-care system because child welfare workers failed to remove Fernandez from his home. Moves have since been taken to fire two social workers and two supervisors, while others involved in the case have received letters of warning or reprimand.

Comments

SCOTUS now directly shares blame when we read future stories like this. The stay granted in VA tells our fellow countrymen that we are 'less than' and unequal and deserving of a lack of human rights. That both creates and perpetuates the climate in which these horrors happen.

Posted by: Martin | Aug 21, 2014 8:48:06 AM

Thank you religion for there would be no hate, discrimination, bigotry, violence, murders or suicide of our LGBT population - especially youth. God teaches hate and violence from the pulpit, according to his living disciples. This hatred has got to stop!

Posted by: ToThePoint | Aug 21, 2014 8:50:21 AM

Prison isn't severe enough punishment...

Posted by: Bruce | Aug 21, 2014 8:56:45 AM

They deserve life in prison so they can remember every single day what they did to this innocent child.

Posted by: Jack M | Aug 21, 2014 9:02:15 AM

My feeling in these cases is that the punishment should suit the crime ... this couple should be treated exactly like they treated this defenseless little boy ...

Posted by: Dale | Aug 21, 2014 9:07:07 AM

@ Jack M - agreed, but someone needs to be sure that the prison is the worst imaginable.

Posted by: Mike in the Tundra | Aug 21, 2014 9:11:46 AM

Dale, they may just get that in prison if the other prisoners learn the details of their crime.

Posted by: Dastius Krazitauc | Aug 21, 2014 9:15:56 AM

So much to say and so little that I am able to. Bless this soul of this child who should never have had to go through such things. I am struck by so much but also think of how many parents gay or straight that would love to have had Gabriel as their child.

Posted by: Jeff | Aug 21, 2014 9:16:45 AM

May God change the heart of the parents. The child has entered eternal rest and life with the Lord now and remembers not the horrors of this world.

Posted by: Malcolm | Aug 21, 2014 9:19:24 AM

The problem, jack, is they don't feel like they did anything wrong. I suspect they have the same mind set as the anti-abortionists who openly brag about murdering the clinic doctors and staff.

At minimum, chemical castration to him and complete hyustorectomy for her; the should never be permitted to bring another life into this world.

Why is it that as long as there have been civilizations of humanity, religion in one form or another was always the catalyst that has caused them to fall?

Posted by: Rad | Aug 21, 2014 9:19:50 AM

I'm against capital punishment but in this case, I'd gladly make an exception. Although,
kiddie killers usually get "special attention" inside so, there's that.

Posted by: Gigi | Aug 21, 2014 9:20:44 AM

Jeezus.

I think that's plenty of internet for today. I'm going to go find some puppies to play with.

Posted by: crispy | Aug 21, 2014 9:25:57 AM

I just watched the news report. Six sheriff's deputies have been "disciplined" for not doing enough to help save Gabriel. They were called to the home FIVE TIMES in the months leading up to his death for suspected physical abuse. Despite the fact that they found a little boy whose face was swollen and badly bruised from beatings(according to his siblings), they did nothing to help him, nor did they report the abuse to the authorities. Their supervisors called the deputies' "missteps" MINOR.

Posted by: Gigi | Aug 21, 2014 9:30:24 AM

She is a monster. But she is far from being the only guilty of this, and i'm not talking about the stupid boyfriend.

If they beat the poor child for eight months how it's possible nobody reacted and did something

Posted by: jjose712 | Aug 21, 2014 9:33:42 AM

This is horrible. It happens more than we think.

Feminine Gay boys and Transgender girls are murdered in a sick fvcking world.

Posted by: Derrick from Philly | Aug 21, 2014 9:42:53 AM

Who were the teachers for this child?

There's no way they could not have noticed what was happening to this boy if these wounds were THAT visible.